Thursday, Mar 27th, 2014

The Uncensored Popeye!

posted by
Dean Mullaney

Now that the first volume of our complete collection of Bobby
London's six years of Popeye strips is in stores, it's a
good a time as any to spring our big surprise—when we say
"complete," we mean COMPLETE!

What IS known: Bobby London's take on the Sailor Man has often
been overshadowed by his being fired from the strip in 1992,
ostensibly for presenting a storyline that was an allegory about
abortion. In that ultimate tale, Olive had become addicted to the
Home Shopping Network and ordered a Baby Brutus mechanical doll.
When Popeye insists that she get rid of the "baby," two priests
mistakenly believe that the baby is real and that Olive is going
exercise her pro-choice rights. King Features Syndicate pulled the
final three weeks of strips and daily newspapers began running
reprints, except for one paper that brazenly published the
strips.That was that. Story over in mid-stream.

Now, twenty-two years later, thanks to the kind cooperation of
the good folks at King Features, those three weeks will be included
in the second volume of our series. But wait…that's not all!
Turns out that in order to fulfill his contract, Bobby produced an
ADDITIONAL SIX WEEKS of strips beyond the three that were pulled
from syndiction! These six weeks were sent to King and prompted
returned. Bobby's been sitting on them all these years and has sent
us copies. (Thanks, Bobby!)

Bottom line? Our second volume, to be published in October, will
contain—for the first time anywhere—ALL NINE weeks of
"censored" Bobby London's Popeye strips. Trust us, it's
worth the wait! Here's one daily to whet your appetite (click on
image for a larger version). In the meantime, don't miss the first
volume, which is on sale now.